In typical injection molding processes, in addition to the mating parts forming the molding cavity abutting at the parting line of the mold, there are often instances where desired part details require additional moving core elements which must move in a plane at ninety degrees to the movement of the parting line as the mold is opened and closed.
These core elements are usually attached to a slide which as the result of an angled cam pin in the cavity plate, and a correspondingly angled bore in a slide in the core plate, through normal opening movement of the mold actuates the lateral travel of the slide, on a guided path, and in so doing positions the slide away from the molded piece part and away from any moving ejector system parts.
A retainer of some type is needed to hold the slide in a position to allow clearance of the piece part and ejector system, and yet allow for the easy re-engagement of the cam pin into the slide without any marring or galling of any of the several parts aforementioned.
There are two main methods by which this end is usually accomplished. One method being externally mounted compression springs, the other method being a wholly enclosed spring loaded clip. An improvement on the spring loaded clip of the latter method is wherein this invention is concerned.
The current spring loaded clips being disadvantageous especially because of high cost and large size. Not only is the initial cost high, but because of their relatively large size, they are unsuitable for small molds requiring, larger molds and mold plates simply to provide enough space to house them than would normally be required, thus an increase of cost; having to machine a large space in order to enclose them, again adds to the initial cost making them, although not less needed, too costly for use with smaller mold bases.